Five County AOG seeks larger local contributions as director warns of no reserves

The Five County Association of Governments (AOG) presented to the Kane County Commission June 30 and asked member governments for feedback on a proposal to raise local contributions to build organizational reserves and stabilize operations.

Darren Bushman, AOG executive director, said the agency now funnels roughly $14 million in services across the region but currently operates with “basically, 0 surplus revenue” and little capacity to replace an aging vehicle fleet or cover payroll if federal drawdowns are interrupted. “We have no ability to replace that fleet,” he told commissioners, adding the AOG had in recent months covered payroll from reserve lines.

To build a reserve, the AOG’s steering committee proposed adding about $400,000 a year to member contributions and changing the funding model so founding organizations (counties, cities, school districts) share the administrative cost: counties 65 percent, cities 25 percent and school districts 15 percent. Bushman said the proposal would raise Kane County’s annual ask from roughly $18,000 to about $26,000.

Commissioners pressed staff on which core services counties should fund versus those that could be billed to cities or schools. Commissioner Myers said some services—like core senior services—are historically county responsibilities and noted the county already funds much of public health and behavioral health; Bushman acknowledged those tensions and said the AOG would pursue bylaw and articles amendments to implement the new revenue approach and would seek written feedback from cities and school districts before formal changes.

No formal vote was taken; commissioners asked staff to review the proposal and provide feedback to the AOG steering committee as part of the organization’s bylaw-review process.